“On the whole, capitalism is growing far more rapidly than before; but this growth is not only becoming more and more uneven in general, its unevenness also manifests itself, in particular, in the decay of the countries which are richest in capital.”

-Vladimir Lenin

On this 250th anniversary of the United States of America, we would like to recognize the unfinished struggle for liberation of our Black and Indigenous compatriots. The War for Independence represents a total victory for the ascending ruling class of the 1700s. The new merchant class which was able to wrestle control from the stodgy monarchy of England called for equal rights among all men while owning slaves and relegating women and other non-landowning Europeans to second class citizens, if citizens at all.

In New Hampshire, it is not uncommon for many of us to celebrate the revolutionary ideals contained within 1776’s Declaration of Independence. We too, celebrate many of those ideals, but we must recognize, and contend with, the fact that we live in a severely undemocratic society where an affluent business class makes the vast majority of decisions in our country. We must finish Reconstruction and move towards a society that our Founding Fathers denied us. A society where democracy truly reigns under the principles of universal and equal suffrage.

Found within the working class in the US, and all across the world, there is a power that can finish the project of universal emancipation which our Founding Fathers so glowingly talked about. The slaver’s constitution, which was designed to uphold the powers of the ascendant aristocracy in the US, can be overturned in favor of a radically democratic society where each person has equal say in the governance of their lives. The Senate, and the imperial Presidency, can be abolished in favor of a single body accountable directly to the people. SNHDSA is fighting for a future where the working class becomes the ascendant class like our Founding Fathers 250 years ago. We will no longer be denied the democracy we were promised. There is no greater power than the class that built the entire world we live in today.

That is why we need to build true revolutionary fervor across the country, and not let the incoming moment of crisis go to waste. It’s hard to ignore the excitement around the electoral victories our organization has achieved in this past year, but we cannot forget that our movement is beyond creating a coalition in Congress or balancing the budget. In the years following the Civil War, Radical Republicans, politicians who were called “pure red republicans” that were supposedly “rotten from the ground up, red all the way through to their kidneys,” attempted to implement popular demands at the federal level, only to be struck down by the rogue Supreme Court and white supremacist holding within the halls of power. Their failures should serve as a warning for those that ignore the limitations that accompany electoralism.

The working class expanding democracy into every aspect of our lives cannot be achieved by politicians in Washington. We must seize power, remind our fellow workers they are the bedrock of society, and halt the crucial industries that allow our empire’s liquid capital to install parasitism and oppression across the globe.

We, the working class, cannot allow our solidarity to be bound by borders, creed, or language. We are unified by many things, but most importantly, by our global struggle against oppression. The divisions developed by the modern ruling class are the exact contradictions which allowed our so-called Founding Fathers to claim their grand experiment of corruption would produce freedom while presiding over slavery and genocide. As socialists, we must remember that no amount of electoral victories at this current stage will nullify the reality which holds us hostage. The working class lives under a dictatorship of capital, and our true revolutionary liberation is predicated on flipping this structure on its head, so the majority may determine their future.

In solidarity,

Patience C & David V/ SNHDSA Co-Chairs